


Old Memories

by FlightOfInsanity



Series: Redstart [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, brief mentions of a massacre/natural disaster, kind of a "hey what happens when guardians remember their old lives" thing, kind of a character exploration thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7594750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lox remembers part of her old life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Things were not going well.

The Vanguard had picked up a garbled distress call from a civilian ship far out from the City – a long lost group of people had finally cobbled together a working ship and were trying to reach the safety of the walls, only to be shot out of the sky by a tombship. A single tombship didn’t warrant more than a single fireteam, especially being so far out, so Lox and her team had been sent to eliminate the Hive and rescue the survivors.

What they hadn’t realized – though it did turn out to be a single tombship – was that the ship had been shot down over a Hive nest. The three Guardians were fighting a seemingly unending stream of Hive as they tried to rescue the injured and terrified civilians and it was not going well.

The trio had set up a transmat zone at the top of a hill, somewhat sheltered from the warzone below by rubble from the civilian ship.

“Is that everyone?” Liora shouted over the din of weapons fire.

“Everyone we’re going to be able to get,” Mava said. She knew there were more people down there, but they were so deep in the mass of Hive it would be almost impossible to reach them. They’d radioed the Tower and the Vanguard had scrambled reinforcements, but there was no telling how long it would take them to arrive.

Lox hissed, either from pain or frustration. “We can’t just leave them.”

“Lox will you _think_ for a moment? We’ve got three jumpships with civilians in orbit, we’re all injured. If we die down here, it’s almost guaranteed that tombship will just shoot our ships down and _everyone_ will die.”

The Titan pointed a finger at Liora. “Lio, get ready to transmat to the ship. Lox, I need you to—“

Mava was cut off by a loud screaming from down the hill – human, terrified, _young_. She clenched a fist; there was nothing they could do now.

“Mava…?” Liora started. The Warlock was upset and scared and she needed direction.

“Lio, ship. Now.” Mava ordered. “Lox, I need—“

The Hunter was rigid, shoulders tensed and angry, as she stared straight down the hill.

“Lox!”

No reaction.

“Dammit.”

Mava was ready to throw the Hunter over her shoulder when Lox suddenly screamed – a loud, formless shriek that made both Mava and Liora jump and look at each other in alarm. She howled again and the Hive closest to the bottom of the hill paused to look for the source of the noise. The Hunter shouted something in a language Mava didn’t recognize, charged her blades, and threw herself down the hill. She half-ran, half-fell, and let her momentum carry her into the mass of enemies where she hacked and slashed with no heed to her own wellbeing.

For a moment, Mava didn’t know what to do. She’d never seen the Hunter so reckless before and had no idea what could have caused it. What she did notice, once she glanced away from the flurry of knives and arc energy, was that Lox’s careless rage had drawn the Hive away from the civilians.

“ _Dammit._ Lio! Go around the Hive and get those civilians! Keep them away from the battle and do it fast.”

“But what about Lox?”

“I’ll get her, now _go!_ ”

The Warlock took off, running wide to one side and trying to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible. Mava watched her for a bit before pulling out her shotgun and charging down the hill. She reached the bottom in time to see Lox take a heavy hit from the flat edge of a Knight’s sword; the Hunter staggered back a step and fell.

“Guardian down!”

Mava swore and slid the rest of the way to where Lox had fallen, throwing up a defensive shield as she reached the Hunter. She set to work reviving the Hunter as the Hive rained fire down on the shield, wanting to expose the Guardians, but reluctant to venture into the dome.

There was the all too familiar flash of light as the Ghosts worked in tandem to rebuild Lox’s body. The Hunter stood for a moment and started to collapse again. Mava lurched forward and caught her before she hit the ground.

“Ghost, what the hell? Did it work?”

Lox’s Ghost appeared in a small puff. “She’s alive, but I’m keeping her unconscious. I’m not sure what triggered that… episode and I thought the last thing you needed was for her to take off again.”

Mava hadn’t thought of that.

“I can wake her, if you need.”

“No. No, this should be fine.” She heaved Lox up onto her shoulders and checked her shield – it was holding, but probably not for much longer. “Lio, how’s it looking?”

“We’re just about—“ A brief burst of gunfire. “We’re just about to the transmat zone. A few seconds, maybe.”

“Good. Get on your ship and your Ghost should be able to take control of the other two. The _instant_ we’re on board, take us out of here.”

“Got it.”

The shield hissed – the only warning it gave before it dissolved – and Mava steeled herself for the sprint back to the transmat zone. The purple dome faded to nothing and she launched herself into the Thrall in front of it, trying to dodge bullets and claws as best she could. She scrambled up the slope, only allowing herself to feel a bit of relief when she hit the transmat zone and felt herself dissolve.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been storming.

The lightning and thunder tearing the sky apart while the wind drove the waves into a fury against their coastal home; the sea and sky competing to see who could be the loudest.

It had been night.

She was new to the dormitory, only having just grown out of the Nursery. She was afraid, but she knew her brothers and sisters were with her and the Captain was nearby. She was afraid, but she was safe.

She had been asleep when the sirens started.

Lox was too young to know what the sirens meant, but she felt the panic running through the city. She heard the Captain barking orders; saw her older siblings leaping into action, grabbing their gear and weapons, racing toward the nearby coastal walls.

Lox and a handful of siblings were herded out of the way. They were to watch and learn (this was going to be their job, after all), but stay out of the way. She stretched up and tried to see. Bright artificial lights joined the explosive flashes of lightning in illuminating the crashing waves. The Guard shouted to one another as they raced back and forth, looking for something.

Lox saw only water.

And then she saw teeth and claws.

A behemoth of a creature lunged up out of the ocean, tearing into the wall and pulling down architecture and the Guards who were too slow to leap to safety. She’d always been afraid of the deep water – they all were – and now she understood why. She huddled with her siblings, the little group trying to stay as unnoticed as possible as they watched the walls fall away.

They had been close to the Nursery.

A Guard in the watch tower shouted down in a panic. Lox didn’t hear what they said, but she didn’t need to. A second behemoth erupted from the waves close to them. Too close. Its claws buried themselves in the Nursery wall and tore at the stones. Chunks fell and seawater crashed in. The ground shook under Lox and her siblings and they cried out in fear.

There had been screaming.

The Guard was trying to get into the Nursery; the workers were trying to get the children out. The behemoth was tearing into the foundation, collasping it as it reached in with teeth and claws, trying to get to the prey that wouldn’t bite back with guns.

Lox remembered the screaming. She remembered the collapse. She remembered being helpless, scooped up by one of her elder siblings as they rushed any children they could far away from the destruction.

She remembered the aftermath. Her father finding her, huddled in fear with her siblings. She remembered the look of the destruction in the early light; the smell of fire and death and seawater. All the younger children, most of the Nursery workers, her mother… gone.

The behemoths had never attacked in a pair before and they hadn’t been prepared.

Lox remembered the storm. She remembered the angry sky and angry sea and the teeth and the claws and the _screaming._

“ _NO!_ ”

She lurched up, wrenching her bleary eyes open. A shape moved off to her right and she lashed out, hand connecting with something painfully solid. Hands grabbed her shoulders and a voice shouted something she couldn’t interpret.

She looked around wildly, looking for the rain and the waves and the teeth. Instead she found smooth architecture and sunny bright light and quiet. She knew this place.

“ _Lox!_ ”

She finally heard and understood and spun her head around, chest heaving as she tried to steady her breath. A face was close to hers – bluish skin, bright white eyes. She knew the face, but it took a second to find the name.

“Lio?”

Relief flooded the young Awoken’s face and she immediately pulled Lox into a tight hug. The Hunter stiffened and sucked in a quick breath, not expecting the sudden embrace. Liora backed off immediately, sitting next to the Hunter instead.

“I’m sorry,” she said hurriedly. “It’s just… after what happened. We didn’t know if you were going to come back, or if you would be alright. Ghost said sometimes Guardians don’t go right, but—“

Lio kept talking and Lox realized that she could feel the all-over tingling ache that came with a ressurection. She flexed a hand and took a few deep breaths.

“I died, then?”

Lio looked away, toward the door, and back. Lox wondered if Mava was out there. No doubt the Titan was on her way, wherever she was.

“You did,” Liora started. “But before that you, um… you kind of…”

The Warlock fussed with a seam on her coat, clearly nervous and upset about something. Lox tried to remember what had happened. Mostly what she remembered was the dream. Or… the memories? She wasn’t sure which it was. Nothing from being a Guardian, that was sure enough, but maybe from before? She thought about the dream again and suddenly remembered the mission and went still.

“The children,” she breathed.

Liora stiffened in alarm at her reaction. “… Lox?”

Lox grabbed one of the Warlock’s hands as she looked down, close to panic. “ _The children_ ,” she insisted. “Did we… did they…?”

Liora put her hands on Lox’s face, forcing the Hunter to focus on her own. “We saved them. We got them all out. You and Mava distracted the Hive long enough for me to get them away. They’re safe in the City.”

“Safe,” Lox repeated, slowly.

“Safe,” Lio confirmed with a small smile. “They are safe and _we_ are safe.”

The door flew open with a loud bang as Mava appeared. The Titan looked at the pair for a second and then growled, “ _You._ ”

She quickly closed the distance between the door and the bed and punched the Hunter in the arm. “If you ever do something like that again, I’m going to kill you myself.”

Lox hissed and rubbed her shoulder. She knew that was as close as the Titan got to hugging, but it still hurt. “Nice to see you, too.”

The Exo sat on Lox’s other side and studied the Hunter’s face. Mava didn’t even have eyes, but still managed to convey her concern. “You remembered?”

Lox fidgeted and looked away. “I guess so.”

There was a pause. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Lox shook her head. She wanted to forget it again. She felt helpless in the memory and she felt helpless now and she couldn’t be useful to her team if she was helpless.

Liora leaned over, bumping their shoulders together. It was a silent message of ‘we’re here if you need us.’

“We all remember eventually,” she said. “If you want, we can let you sleep some more?”

“No,” Lox said, quickly. She didn’t want to go back to the dark just yet. “I think I’d rather go outside.”

Thankfully, her team seemed to understand the unspoken request. She wanted to be in the sun; in the light.

“Oh!” Liora suddenly shouted. “You know that bird’s nest we found on the roof? I think the eggs hatched! We could climb up and feed the babies!”

Lox huffed a quiet laugh; the Warlock’s excitement was kind of contagious and she was incredibly thankful for the distraction. She knew eventually she would need to come to terms with her old memories, but for now…

“I think that sounds like an excellent idea.”


End file.
